catbirdseat

"rediculus!" Isn't that the incantation used against Bogerts in Harry Potter?

It appears that they have subdivided operations for the sake of efficiency: 1) assemble cable and ferrule, put in a bin 2) take assembly out of bin press ferrule. It seems to me that even though it would be less efficient, the same person should do both operations at once to ensure it gets done.

Yes, both of these people died in the exact same place my son had his accident in 1999. Basically, as Gary said, the snow slides down from the steep rock face above the gully and forms a steep slope. The snow is very hard packed there. My son's accident occurred in June, however. He was rescued by Snohomish County SAR and he has recovered fully. People have a tendency to think of Mt. Dickerman as "just a hike" and fail to come prepared with ice axe and crampons. They reach that one spot and figure they can safely get across. If you slip there, it is really bad. In winter you will go until you hit a tree. In summer you will rocket off the edge of the snow and land on rocks. I knew Dale Godsey. He was a good man. What a terrible waste of a precious life.

I think it is about 400-500 ft. http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5254077.00017691&e=603600.000001594&datum=nad83

Cook, would you clarify something for me? Is this gully just to the right of the South Spur?

That was one ballsy rescue.

I suggest the Tunnel Creek approach if you want to ski. It's longer, but you wouldn't have to deal with so many trees, and there are nice slopes along the way that you could ski.

Allow me to translate for you. When the Water VII changes to a different crystalline phase, it's density decreases, and therefore its volume increases- it takes more space and therefore displaces rock. This may be the cause of earthquakes.

I can be there late for some gear swapping.

Whoa! That's something!

Sounds like the problem was that the swage was never pressed at all, as opposed to having been done incorrectly. This sort of thing might have been revealed by careful inspection. When you buy a new expensive toy, naturally one gives it a good once over, before forking out the cash. Replacement gear should receive the same sort of inspection.

The temperature and pressure cited in the above article lie way up and to the right of the phase diagram I referenced.

Ice VII has a density of 1.66 g/cc!

I'd heard that there was another fatality on Dickerman. I don't know anything beyond that.

I WAS looking forward to a day of rest after climbing for two days, but my daughter and son wanted to go ice skating. I hadn't been on skates in at least ten years, and I was still sore. But you know what? We had a lot of fun. I can still skate as badly as ever. At least I didn't fall down.

I'm not exactly proud to be taking falls in the alpine, but thanks for the catch.

If I am not mistaken, I think Ptarmigan Ridge has only been done once in winter.

Thermogenesis is not held in awe because of it's difficulty but because of its extreme objective hazard. It only got climbed by mistake.

As far as I know, it is a first winter ascent. I don't really know how one determines such things. All the credit for the photos goes to Roboboy.

Nice work! Got any more pictures?

Camp at Outlet to Surprise Lake. Approaching the tower on the ridge from Trap Pass. The Northwest Face. Glacier Peak over Trap Pass. Catbirdseat leading rock pitch. Summit Shot.

Climb: Slippery Slab Tower-NE Face Date of Climb: 2/19/2006 Trip Report: This climb is quite popular in the summer as a rock climb. There are two popular approaches, one from Tunnel Creek via Hope Lake and the PCT and the other from Surprise Lake. We chose the latter because the parking area is plowed in winter. Weekend_Climberz and I arrived at the parking lot for the Surprise Lake trail at 9 and were off at 10 am or so, following a fresh set of snowshoe tracks. After a couple hours, the smell of a burning cigarette announced we had caught up to the other snowshoers. They had turned around where the old boot path ended, at the place where the valley steepens. Here we searched and found a log to take us across the creek. From here we were breaking our own trail up steep forested hillside approximately along the route of the trail. The snow was pretty firm in general which helped greatly, but was icy in places under the trees. We arrived at Surprise Lake around 2 pm and camped on a nice sunny spot near the exit stream. We dug ourselves a way down to the creek so we could get water. The stream was not quite frozen up, even though it was about 20 degrees out. After a typical long and cold winter night in the tent (15 degrees F inside), we arose at the crack of 7 am and were off for the summit at 8. We headed more or less directly east up the slope parallel and to the right of the summer route to Trap Pass. Trail breaking was a chore at times but not too bad. We arrived at the base of the Tower at about 11 am. We were disappointed to find no ice at all on it, and were glad we brought as much rock gear as we had. I led up to the trees on steep snow, which in summer is a fourth class gully. Our belay was on the top 4 feet of a 20 foot talll tree. Come summer, somebody is going to wonder how a sling got 15 feet off the ground. About this time, we spotted Roboboy hiking up along the ridge. He had left the trailhead at 7 that morning and made great time. He parked himself in a sunny spot, watched and took pictures as we climbed. Scott took the rock gear and led the pitch but got stymied on the slick dihedral. I tried to describe an alternate route to the left but he couldn't see it from his vantage point. Setting a green Alien and a #3 slider nut, I lowered him back to the belay to take a go at it. At the dihedral I could see I was going to have trouble without crampons (I had foolishly brought aluminum ones). I knew I needed bombproof pro so I replaced the cam and ball nut with an angle piton in a horizontal crack. I climbed up about ten feet and had hands but couldn't get feet. Falling! The pin held and I was uninjured, but oh, that alpine bod harness did it's work! Ouch! Now it was time to try that other line I saw, so I downclimbed a few feet from the pin and traversed to the left, blindly placing yellow TCU in a downward facing crack at my feet. Then it was up and the climbing got easier, with a red tricam, a nut etc., and a couple of nice frozen moss sticks with my hammer. I slung the rap slings on the little tree and continued on up as I had a 60 meter rope. I brought Scott up and he didn't have any trouble, cleaning the pin without apparent effort. A short belay and we were at the summit and posed for our photographer below. After signing the summit register we descended via a very short rap to the tree and a 25 meter rap to the top of the snow. There was one more rap down the snow ramp. Back to camp by 3 pm and the cars by 6 pm. We had a hearty meal of chicken pot pie at Sultan Bakery. I can't believe I had that whole thing! Gear Notes: #3 Lowe Ball, Green Alien, Yellow TCU, baby angle piton, several medium nuts, 7 slings, one fluke Approach Notes: Snowshoe trail to mile ~2. Snowshoes breaking trail to Surprise Lake. Windcrust on ridge above Trap Pass. Used crampons but not really necessary.

It's called "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory". I think that phrase was coined on Gilligan's Island.

I thought you said you were coming painted as an elephant.

Post deleted by mattp